I was woken up at 6.45 and decided to get up and then soon after I decided to visit a few remaining places and shower later. I headed out with their umbrella and realised I did not have that much water, maybe 600ml so I thought of turning back but didn't. I crossed the river and headed to elephant hill which was closed and then south towards a bridge. The road led to a dead end and there were fishermen behind a barrier for construction work. I managed to find my way around and climb a barrier fence and get up onto the bridge which was being tarmacked on one side and there was wet cement on bridge which I stepped in, ethical travel companies always say to leave nothing but footprints and there was mine. I was going to seven star park and and I had 3 choices of roads to take, one was called Fuxing which appealed to me but instead I took the middle one and got to the park where there were security and a ticket office. I went east a bit to another entrance and there was an entrance to the park, 70 yuan and also what looked like a zoo for 65 yuan. I left and walked back towards town to go to some parks in the north. It was drizzling and I searched on the internet for a VPN and then for shoe size 42 which turned out to be size 9. I was size 9! I looked at my falling apart still wet shoes, they said 43 so surely 42 would probably be ok. I decided to go buy the fur trimmed ones I'd seen so headed towards the market. I got to a bridge and saw lots of clocks for different time zones and there were people swimming in what I imagine is quite cold water and I could see was muddy water. On the other side of the bridge was an interesting building like a fat pagoda so I went down steps under the bridge to see and it was free entry so I went up for the view. I'm not sure if there is normally more there as there was another building that was closed but I headed towards the market through some old streets called the east west alley that had a plaque. I got to the market and most places were shut, it was about 9am, I wandered round to double check before leaving and I caught a bus to the park. I got off a stop early and walked along the south side if the park but the entrances were shut and from the back I could see a hill with a temple on top. Oh well, I headed south to the lake park and found that had an entrance fee of 70 yuan. It did have the hill with a hole through it which I could see when I crossed the road. I decided to have another look at the earlier park and double backed north and found the front entrance on the main road which I would have seen if I'd took the bus one more stop earlier. There was a nice fountain inside as well as the hill with the temple on top and entrance was 34 yuan. Everywhere in Guilin seemed to charge, Yangshuo at least had some free places like the hills. I headed back and it was a distance so I decided to take the bus but I needed change so I bought a pot noodle without the pot for 3 yuan and then got the 100 bus. I went to the underground market and the shoe place was still shut. If only I'd tried the shoes on the day before. I bought some rice and a steamed bun and went back to the hostel. It was about 10.40 so I was a bit behind schedule but I showered and packed and managed to remember everything like my socks, umbrella, towel and went to get my key deposit back. I tried to book my next hostel but internet trouble caused me all kinds of problems. I was leaving with my suitcase when I realised I'd left my bag on the room so I borrowed a key and got it. It was 11.11 and my train was at 12.24 so it should be ok, the walk to the bus stop was hard with the suitcases condition I was holding it up while dragging it and it was pretty heavy with everything I had. I stopped halfway with 300 metres to go, ok 3 minutes more I told myself and 3.20 later I was at the toad, then I crossed it and the bus stop was not too far. The first bus to come was a 99 so I got on, I'd not taken it before and it gad a map of its route which looked like itvwe t past the station rather than terminate there like the 100. The bus was not full but had quite a few people on including one person who just seemed to like to stand on the aisle in the way, it also had a TV screen which kept playing a video with an Avicii song. The bus stopped on the road near the station and I asked if I should get off here for Guilinbei but nobody replied and the bus closed its doors and headed off to turn right away from the station. I was a bit worried but people on the bus were signalling it was ok and the bus did a u'turn but then stopped and it was a bit further than where I was before. Everyone seemed to get off and told me to get off so I walked to the station in the light rain and arrived a bit tired. As usual someone pushed in the security check queue but I was there with 15 minutes to spare. I followed people up an escalator and then discovered my platform was below so I found a lift down to not have to carry the suitcase down the stairs. I went through the ticket barrier and then had to go upstairs to get to the platform. At least my coach was near to the steps down and it was pretty packed with luggage all over including next to me. People seemed to move about on seats as they liked so I wasn't sure who sat next to me. The train headed of and unexpectedly went south which I was not expecting but the ticket officer was happy I was on the right train so I ate some of my food and settled in for the 20 hour journey hoping that some of these people would leave at stops as we went. I read my saved wikitravel webpages for research and ate quite a lot of my food and was thinking of getting out the other food I'd packed in my suitcase but I bought a pot noodle. We stopped around 4pm and lots of people got off and more got on. There was a different older couple across from me now with a woman who did exaggerated yawns, maybe it was something they just do in China. She had her feet up on the empty seat next to me but I managed to take some of the space and sleep a bit. I ate the pot noodle around 6pm and at 7 we stopped and more got off and on and our 4 seats were all full but at least I had the window. I mostly read until 8 and finished game of thrones and started clash of kings and ate the noodle packet I'd bought in the morning using the pot noodle pot. After that I rested a bit and dozed with my head on the table. I woke up and I realised the man from the couple was sitting next to me and the man was lying on the 2 seats opposite. I couldn't sleep so I read some more and after a not very pleasant short nap I got up to see what the rest of the train was like and 1 carriage down had lots of space so I got my bag and took 2 seats there. I slept for an hour or so and at 2am we stopped and people got off so I took a 3 person seat and lay down curled up to sleep.
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